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How Eating Disorders Heal
by
Abigail H. Natenshon, MA, LCSW, GCFP
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Eating disorders are relationship disorders;
They indicate a problematic relationship with food, with the self, with the
nature of life as we know it, and with others.
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ED heal through human connections…between
the patient with supportive others, and ultimately, between the patient and the
self.
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Eating disorder healing happens within the context of systems dynamics
….through the family system, the personality system, through varied treatment
and human resource systems.
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Even while healing through the integration of
a vast diversity of resources, the healing process evokesdifferentiation within
the structure of the victim’s otherwise undifferentiated, inflexible self.
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Eating disorders heal through learning,
through change and through self determined behaviors. Healing and eating
disorder requires action; eating
disorders are hardly passive diseases; always in motion, these disorders are
either getting better or they are getting worse.
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Eating disorders heal through intention, through
anticipation, and through emotional preparedness to handle the reality of the
unpredictability of life as it unfolds. In many respects, the experience of the
eating disorder practitioner is as emotionally challenging as it is for the
patient.
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Eating disorders heal through self-awareness, emotional
growth, and through the restoration of weight and physical health.
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Eating disorder are Life disorders. Recovery from an eating disorder upgrades
the patient’s quality of function in all life
spheres.
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